Folks, I’m dissolving this merry band of blog travelers here at Ultrabrown. We’ve had a great four-year run.
I’ve found the blog is highly distracting from the day job (tech startups). It feels like leaving IM open all day– an erudite, fascinating chat room, but one pulling constantly at my easily distracted brain. I’d also like [...]
The year-end short-story special that I co-edited for Tehelka in 2008 has just been published in book form, by Hachette India.(Click to enlarge)The book contains 10 of the original 15 stories, as well as two newly commissioned ones (by Brinda Charry an…
The second of my “Persistence of Vision” columns for Yahoo! India is up. This one is about Agatha Christie filtered through Manoj Kumar’s quivering lower lip, Helen’s swimsuit dance and Mehmood’s Hitler moustache. Here’s the link.
…or, a new literary festival in Bhutan. Am going for it next week. Should be an enjoyable four days. Here’s the full programme.
Here’s the first edition of my film column for Yahoo India. I was asked to do an introductory piece that touched on my journey as a movie-buff, but the column will get more specific from next time. [...] comments welcome.
Update: the full post
A boy’s notebook
This being an introductory column, I thought I’d say a little [...]
Starting next Friday, I’ll be writing a fortnightly film column for Yahoo India. This is part of a new section that has launched today, and which will feature many other columns on a variety of subjects: for the full list, see this post by Amit Varma…
We just moved the blog to a new host. Please post a comment if you see anything broken.
The F.T.C. said that beginning on Dec. 1, bloggers who review products must disclose any connection with advertisers, including, in most cases, the receipt of free products… [NYT]
I’d like to disclose right now that my SelloutRank is disappointingly low. I sometimes receive review copies of books and albums (thank you) and get into advance screenings [...]
We’ve added free classifieds at: ultrabrown.com/classifieds
You can buy and sell stuff, post or find housing, jobs, gigs, volunteering and so on.
Ever since the halcyon days of desi blogging, we’ve joked about putting together a personals site called Sepia Destiny. Yes we can. We decided against a casual encounters section for now — surely that’s what [...]
For those of you more into books than any other strand of this site, I’ve just started blogging literature at vij.com …
… and microblogging books at twitter.com/manish_vij. Will not be restricting myself to South Asian lit. Do follow me there for book-specific and longer-form writing posted ~weekly.
The desi bits will be crossposted here, and Ultrabrown [...]
A gay and lesbian desi org apparently had no problem procuring a booth for the India Day festival in Fremont, CA. I always thought the metropolis of Stonewall would be more cosmopolitan than the city of sari shops.
Nicholas Schmidle, To Live or to Perish Forever: kicked out of Pakistan by Musharraf, which is its own kind of recommendation, Schmidle strikes back with an analysis of fundamentalism.
Sadanand Dhume, My Friend the Fanatic: travels through Indonesia with an Islamist (sensing a theme here).
Anne Cherian, A Good Indian Wife: pop fic, sari cover.
Pompousness [...]
Predictable discriminatory lameness from the FIA. Open your minds, bristly-moustached uncles. There will be a protest Sunday — how is that better than including card-carrying desis in the parade?
By the way, posting here may be slow til Wednesday. On the road for an arts and wedding weekend.
(thanks, Filmiholic)
Reminder: New York readers, come by the joint Ultrabrown + Sepia Mutiny meetup this Sunday at 5pm, Verlaine in LES, Manhattan. Good conversation, comfy leather couches, $5 martinis.
In the past the joint meetups have drawn around 50-70 people (albeit on a Saturday) with follow-on events around the corner. This time I’ve got my eye on [...]